Cognitive: Students will understand that “Honesty is the best policy” and that cheating hurts the cheater. They will understand the difference between being honest and being brutally honest. They will consider moral questions about when “everyone is doing it” whether they should engage in dishonest behavior or not. They will understand that true friends sometimes have to correct each other’s behavior. Affective: Students will empathize with Angie and support her decision to tell on her friend’s cheating. Students will want to be honest, yet kind. Behavioral: Students will distinguish between honesty and brutal honesty. They will debate moral criteria. Students will identify situations where honesty aids society. They will interpret situations where honesty is needed but must be tempered with kindness.
Ask for a student volunteer to recount the story in “The Best Policy.” Allow other volunteers to fill in important points that may have been left out.
Note that the title comes from the old saying, “Honesty is the best policy.” Write this saying on the board.
Ask students: What kind of a girl is Angie? Did math come easily to her? Is that why Angie thought cheating was wrong? Or did math come hard for her—did she have to work hard and sweat out the test? Point out that the text says that Angie was “toiling” during the math test and found it difficult. Ask students what the text says Angie did to prepare for the test. Given that math was very hard for her, did Angie have good reason to want to cheat sometimes? Yet she didn’t cheat, and she was upset that Debbie did. What kind of girl is Angie? Affirm that she is honest.
Ask students if they think cheating hurts the teacher or the principal. Make the point that a cheater hurts him- or herself most of all. For example, to run a household and to raise a family, a person needs certain math skills. There are many household repairs that require some use of math; using and budgeting money requires math skills. If the person does not understand math and just cheats on every test, the person will not be able to do things well in the future as far as money or calculations go. The teacher is not hurt. The principal is not hurt. The person who cheated him- or herself out of gaining necessary knowledge is the one who is hurt.
Point out that this story is about honesty, but it is also about friendship. Ask students if they like friends who are honest with them or dishonest with them. Do they think that a person who is dishonest in school might also be dishonest in friendship? Point out that cheating is a form of dishonesty. Ask students why this is so.
Write on the board the statement: “Angie did not betray her friend Debbie by telling on her to the teacher.” Ask how many students agree with this statement. Ask how many students disagree with it. If there is enough disagreement, perhaps the class can be divided into two sides of a debate.
Ask students if friends only say nice things to each other and accept everything the other person does, no matter what. Ask if that is really being a true friend to someone. Explain that Shakespeare said you sometimes have to be cruel in order to be kind. (It is from the play Hamlet, and the quote is, “I must be cruel only to be kind.”) Write this quote from Shakespeare on the board. Solicit examples from students as to what being cruel in order to be kind might mean in friendship. Ask them how this quote ties in with the story.
Ask the students to do the Reflection Exercise: “A Time When I Was Dishonest.”.
Assign the Exercise: “Honesty and Dishonesty” to be done over the next week and follow up on it one week from the time it was assigned. Ask students to read the Exercise now, in class, and to begin it now.
Class Session 2
Remind students of the story in “The Best Policy.”
Ask students to fill in the Questions for Reflection .
When students have finished filling in the Questions for Reflection, ask them to look again at Question #6. Solicit answers from the class as to what they would do in this situation and why they would do it.
Next, ask them to look again at Question #7. Mention that some university students have said that so many other people cheat, the honest people are at a disadvantage, and you have to cheat just to make things fair. Ask students: “Is this true? If many people are cheating, does that mean everyone should then cheat?”
After students have discussed this, raise the question, “How about if everyone shoplifts?” Explain that some big chains of stores have had to go out of business because of shoplifting costs. Also, they have to raise their prices to make up for their many losses to shoplifting. It is true that the honest people pay for the dishonest people. Should we then all become dishonest? What will happen to prices then? Point out that it could be argued that the honest people are keeping the prices down!
Next, ask students to look once again at Question #8. Ask them to close their eyes and think about their day so far. Imagine that everything they have done, said, and thought today was going to be shown on the evening news tonight in detail. Have they been honest? What kinds of headlines are they making in their lives?
Ask students if they think dishonesty is ever justified. Ask them to think about this: during the Holocaust, when Hitler’s soldiers searched homes to take Jews away to be killed, some kind people hid Jews in their own homes to protect them. These people felt it was unjust to kill someone just because of their religion, and they felt that Hitler and his soldiers were evil. Were those kind people wrong to say, when the Nazis knocked on their doors and asked if there were any Jews in the house, “No, there are no Jews here”?
Ask students, “What about under more ordinary circumstances? Say your aunt just got her hair done at a salon. It looks awful, in your opinion. Your aunt shows her head off to you and says, ‘What do you think?’ Should you be honest?” Let students debate, then ask, “Is there a way to be honest in this situation without hurting her feelings?” Suggest, “To be honest, Auntie, I liked your hair better the way it was before. But you always look lovely to me, no matter how you wear your hair.”
Ask students to consider this situation: Your friend played really badly at the big town soccer game. He is normally a good player, but he was really off his game today, and it hurt the team. When he comes up to you after the game, he says, “I made us lose, didn’t I?” What should you say? Should you lie and say comforting things, or should you be brutally honest and say, “Yeah, you sure did. I can see why everyone is mad at you”? Is there a way to be honest in this situation without hurting your friend’s feelings? Suggest saying something like, “You had a bad day out there. I could see you were off your game. Everyone has days like that, though. Other people made mistakes too, and the other team played really well. It was a tough day.”
Explain to the students that there is a difference between honesty and brutal honesty. Brutal honesty is when you say whatever you think and feel, without thinking about its effect on the other person. It is speaking bluntly without thinking of polishing your words so that they don’t hurt so much. For instance, your friend asks you to come over to his house for the third day in a row. Which reply is brutally honest and which reply is honest?
I don’t want to come over to your house again. I’m bored stiff there. It’s small and stuffy, and there’s nothing to do.
I’d like to do something different today. Let’s try the park.
Have students role-play Honest and Brutally Honest, holding up signs or announcing which is to be enacted. Give them the following situations to enact:
Your friend doesn’t shower as much as a boy his age should. He smells. Other kids are starting to avoid him.
Your mother has gained a lot of weight recently. You’re worried about her health and you’d like her to slim down for the Spring Open House at school, so the other kids don’t make fun of her behind her back.
Your friend bought a cool new lipstick. It makes her teeth look really yellow, though, and you notice that she didn’t brush them this morning.
Conclude the class by emphasizing that honesty is the best policy, but that it is important to be kind while being honest.
Lesson Objectives
Cognitive: Students will understand that “Honesty is the best policy” and that cheating hurts the cheater. They will understand the difference between being honest and being brutally honest. They will consider moral questions about when “everyone is doing it” whether they should engage in dishonest behavior or not. They will understand that true friends sometimes have to correct each other’s behavior.
Affective: Students will empathize with Angie and support her decision to tell on her friend’s cheating. Students will want to be honest, yet kind.
Behavioral: Students will distinguish between honesty and brutal honesty. They will debate moral criteria. Students will identify situations where honesty aids society. They will interpret situations where honesty is needed but must be tempered with kindness.
Ask for a student volunteer to recount the story in “The Best Policy.” Allow other volunteers to fill in important points that may have been left out.
Note that the title comes from the old saying, “Honesty is the best policy.” Write this saying on the board.
Ask students: What kind of a girl is Angie? Did math come easily to her? Is that why Angie thought cheating was wrong? Or did math come hard for her—did she have to work hard and sweat out the test? Point out that the text says that Angie was “toiling” during the math test and found it difficult. Ask students what the text says Angie did to prepare for the test. Given that math was very hard for her, did Angie have good reason to want to cheat sometimes? Yet she didn’t cheat, and she was upset that Debbie did. What kind of girl is Angie? Affirm that she is honest.
Ask students if they think cheating hurts the teacher or the principal. Make the point that a cheater hurts him- or herself most of all. For example, to run a household and to raise a family, a person needs certain math skills. There are many household repairs that require some use of math; using and budgeting money requires math skills. If the person does not understand math and just cheats on every test, the person will not be able to do things well in the future as far as money or calculations go. The teacher is not hurt. The principal is not hurt. The person who cheated him- or herself out of gaining necessary knowledge is the one who is hurt.
Point out that this story is about honesty, but it is also about friendship. Ask students if they like friends who are honest with them or dishonest with them. Do they think that a person who is dishonest in school might also be dishonest in friendship? Point out that cheating is a form of dishonesty. Ask students why this is so.
Write on the board the statement: “Angie did not betray her friend Debbie by telling on her to the teacher.” Ask how many students agree with this statement. Ask how many students disagree with it. If there is enough disagreement, perhaps the class can be divided into two sides of a debate.
Ask students if friends only say nice things to each other and accept everything the other person does, no matter what. Ask if that is really being a true friend to someone. Explain that Shakespeare said you sometimes have to be cruel in order to be kind. (It is from the play Hamlet, and the quote is, “I must be cruel only to be kind.”) Write this quote from Shakespeare on the board. Solicit examples from students as to what being cruel in order to be kind might mean in friendship. Ask them how this quote ties in with the story.
Ask the students to do the Reflection Exercise: “A Time When I Was Dishonest.”.
Assign the Exercise: “Honesty and Dishonesty” to be done over the next week and follow up on it one week from the time it was assigned. Ask students to read the Exercise now, in class, and to begin it now.
Class Session 2
Remind students of the story in “The Best Policy.”
Ask students to fill in the Questions for Reflection .
When students have finished filling in the Questions for Reflection, ask them to look again at Question #6. Solicit answers from the class as to what they would do in this situation and why they would do it.
Next, ask them to look again at Question #7. Mention that some university students have said that so many other people cheat, the honest people are at a disadvantage, and you have to cheat just to make things fair. Ask students: “Is this true? If many people are cheating, does that mean everyone should then cheat?”
After students have discussed this, raise the question, “How about if everyone shoplifts?” Explain that some big chains of stores have had to go out of business because of shoplifting costs. Also, they have to raise their prices to make up for their many losses to shoplifting. It is true that the honest people pay for the dishonest people. Should we then all become dishonest? What will happen to prices then? Point out that it could be argued that the honest people are keeping the prices down!
Next, ask students to look once again at Question #8. Ask them to close their eyes and think about their day so far. Imagine that everything they have done, said, and thought today was going to be shown on the evening news tonight in detail. Have they been honest? What kinds of headlines are they making in their lives?
Ask students if they think dishonesty is ever justified. Ask them to think about this: during the Holocaust, when Hitler’s soldiers searched homes to take Jews away to be killed, some kind people hid Jews in their own homes to protect them. These people felt it was unjust to kill someone just because of their religion, and they felt that Hitler and his soldiers were evil. Were those kind people wrong to say, when the Nazis knocked on their doors and asked if there were any Jews in the house, “No, there are no Jews here”?
Ask students, “What about under more ordinary circumstances? Say your aunt just got her hair done at a salon. It looks awful, in your opinion. Your aunt shows her head off to you and says, ‘What do you think?’ Should you be honest?” Let students debate, then ask, “Is there a way to be honest in this situation without hurting her feelings?” Suggest, “To be honest, Auntie, I liked your hair better the way it was before. But you always look lovely to me, no matter how you wear your hair.”
Ask students to consider this situation: Your friend played really badly at the big town soccer game. He is normally a good player, but he was really off his game today, and it hurt the team. When he comes up to you after the game, he says, “I made us lose, didn’t I?” What should you say? Should you lie and say comforting things, or should you be brutally honest and say, “Yeah, you sure did. I can see why everyone is mad at you”? Is there a way to be honest in this situation without hurting your friend’s feelings? Suggest saying something like, “You had a bad day out there. I could see you were off your game. Everyone has days like that, though. Other people made mistakes too, and the other team played really well. It was a tough day.”
Explain to the students that there is a difference between honesty and brutal honesty. Brutal honesty is when you say whatever you think and feel, without thinking about its effect on the other person. It is speaking bluntly without thinking of polishing your words so that they don’t hurt so much. For instance, your friend asks you to come over to his house for the third day in a row. Which reply is brutally honest and which reply is honest?
Have students role-play Honest and Brutally Honest, holding up signs or announcing which is to be enacted. Give them the following situations to enact:
Conclude the class by emphasizing that honesty is the best policy, but that it is important to be kind while being honest.